Back in May of 2010, after the Lakers hobbled into the second round of the playoffs following a ragged seven-game series win over the Hornets, it was clear that an overhaul was needed in L.A. Coach Phil Jackson was overseeing a group that had, collectively, run out of steam, and by the time they faced the eventual-champion Mavericks, that group was ready to collapse.

Sweeping changes followed, during which team president Jim Buss was bent on consolidating his power within the organization. That meant a de-Jackson-ification of the franchise. Not only was Jackson gone, but assistant general manager Ronnie Lester was sent packing, too.

The presumed favorite to take over for Jackson, assistant coach Brian Shaw (who had Jackson’s endorsement), was spurned in favor of Mike Brown, a guy who was a proven defensive coach but whose offensive credentials didn’t seem to go past the fact that he would never be tempted to run Jackson’s triangle offense. That was enough for Buss.

Fast forward a year-and-a-half, and it is fair to wonder just where the Lakers have gone in the meantime.

There has been plenty of sound and fury over that stretch of time, but it has signified nothing. Their last playoff outing, under Brown, looked much like Jackson’s last playoff outing, a second-round loss to the conference champs that came on the heels of a tougher-than-expected first-round series.

Today, though, layered on top of that disappointment, is a disjointed front office headed up by Buss to go along with the public embarrassment of firing Brown just five games (four of which were losses) into the season, and with $11 million remaining on his contract.

“It could have turned out just fine (with Brown) but we weren’t willing to take that chance,” general manager Mitch Kupchak said.

Not willing to chance it after five games? Does that make any sort of sense?

This kind of move smacks of desperation, and allowing desperation to kick in with a measly six percent of the schedule having been played is just not how a credible NBA franchise (a franchise in any sport, for that matter) should operate. And that’s the wider concern for the Lakers in the wake of the Brown firing. Forget about the Princeton offense, the merits of Brown as a coach or even the moves that brought in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this summer. What matters here is what kind of franchise the Lakers have become, with Buss giving Brown a vote of confidence one day and firing him the next.

The Lakers of this century have, seemingly, always had some major internal schism, whether it was Kobe Bryant vs. Shaquille O’Neal on the court and in the locker room or Jerry West vs. Phil Jackson in the front office. But they’ve also had healthy balance and solid decision-making, and if you were an agent or opposing general manager, the Lakers had a good reputation for finding ways to get things done.

Now, that’s coming apart.

Kupchak is an old-school general manager, who was around in West’s heyday and knows the value of relationships within the organization and the league. Little surprise, then, that behind the scenes, Kupchak reportedly was in favor of giving Brown more time to turn things around.

Buss is a work in progress, at best. He has made some serious missteps, most notably passing on Shaw and hiring Brown, and doing so without the input of Bryant. The frequently leaked trade talks that encircled Pau Gasol for the better part of two years have been a problem, too, and after seeing what happened with Brown, one source said he expects those rumors could be resuscitated. Gasol was the easy fall guy for the Lakers’ last two failings, and now that Brown has been whacked, he will fill that role again if the Lakers don’t improve.

“It is tough I think because it is not always clear who you’re dealing with and what the chain of command is,” one opposing general manager said on condition of anonymity. “When Jerry West was there, he was always willing to talk and see if there were things to be done. He was someone who just knew the league and the pulse of the league.

“Mitch is a little more reserved and quiet, he does not do the gossip circuit and all of that,” he continued. “But he learned from Jerry and wants things to run how Jerry ran them. Jim Buss, there is a wild-card factor there. He isn’t coming to this with the background most of us have.”

The Lakers managed to woo Nash in free agency this summer, and Buss and Kupchak deserve credit for that. But even within that success, the Lakers took much more of a seat-of-the-pants approach than the two other teams pursuing Nash, the Knicks and Raptors, who had extensive pitches for Nash. In other words, the Lakers benefited from being the Lakers, and not necessarily from a smooth and targeted Nash strategy.

In acquiring Howard, too, the Lakers’ main contribution to the deal was that they had a sizable chip in Andrew Bynum and were willing to take Howard without an assurance he would sign a long-term deal. It was the other teams involved in the Howard trade, primarily Philadelphia and Denver, that pushed that trade along.

And so it was thought that Buss and the Lakers fell into a superteam capable of, based on talent alone, counterbalancing the Heat in the Eastern Conference. It hasn’t looked that way so far, but the on-court issues are not necessarily the most troubling part of the problem.

As the Lakers have stumbled to open the year, it has been the players who have preached calm and patience, while the front office is already panicking and knocking off coaches.

That’s a bad precedent and it’s a sign of where the organization stands.